Benghazi (6 page)

The element in Tripoli consisted of two active-duty JSOC operators and five CIA personnel. Unknown to the public until now, the CIA and JSOC element led by Glen practically commandeered a small jet in Tripoli and forced the pilots to fly them to Benghazi so that they could get in the fight. They used cash they had on hand and paid the crew $30,000 US for the flight. Money talks in Libya, and soon they were on their way.

Here it's important for the reader to understand the complexity of the situation. Events were developing extremely rapidly—by the minute—and Libya is not an established theatre. Having the Department of State, the CIA, and the US Military (Africa Command among others) in the mix, with no clear command structure, added new snags to an already-complicated and volatile situation. It's widely known by insiders that intense rivalries among these agencies exist. CIA, JSOC, and State do not talk to one another on a regular basis, nor do they share information well.

A
T THE
S
TATE
Department compound, Ty's team set up and started to unleash everything they had on the attacking force. His guys had one MK46 machine gun between them, and individual H&K 416s complimented with GLMs (H&K 40mm grenade launchers). One of Ty's team members was a USMC veteran of Iraq and the bloodbath in Fallujah. Ty's agents unloaded on the enemy and soon had them on the run. The former Marine, armed with a bandolier of “golden eggs” (40mm grenades), would lob them as Ty directed; they worked with such efficiency that their teammates would later compare the sight to witnessing a conductor working with a master musician. Within minutes, the small, six-man team had turned the tide: dead enemy littered the compound, and the rest were confused and running for cover. At this point, Ty signaled for the team to head for the main TOC building.

The GRS agents fired and maneuvered their way to the DSS agents. It was the efforts of Ty's team that enabled a lull in fire long enough for the remaining DSS in the outlying villa to join up with the main element. It was here that Ty and the TL made the decision to send the DSS team back to the CIA compound. The DSS guys were too inexperienced to be of much help, but Ty and the GRS team were another breed and would stay a bit longer to search for the ambassador and Sean Smith.

The GRS agents called back to the CIA base and let them know to expect one inbound vehicle containing State Department personnel. Ty gave the DSS agents a quick lay of the land outside the gate and was explicit in his instructions for them to make a hard right turn out of the gate. “Do not go left into bad guy land,” he said. The instructions were ignored, unfortunately, and the State vehicle made a left, immediately encountering a hail of gunfire. Lucky for them, the armored windows held up, and they eventually made it back to the CIA base unharmed.

Wasting no time, the elite GRS team worked their way to the ambassador's burning Villa. Small arms fire was starting to pick up again, and they had to shoot their way to the burning building as several RPGs exploded nearby. Woomp BOOM! Woomp BOOM! Passing through a hail of bullets, they entered into the blazing building and began searching for the ambassador. Ty's instructions in the burning building saved at least one man who almost took a wrong turn into the flaming maze. They located Sean Smith, who was unconscious and would later be declared dead. They spent a few more precious minutes searching for the ambassador before deciding that the compound was at risk of being overrun by enemy forces. They no longer had the element of surprise working for them. With their finite supply of ammunitions running low, they radioed that there was no sign of the ambassador and they were on their way back. It was the best they could do in an almost impossible situation.

They then shot their way back to the cars, again coming under heavy enemy rocket and AK–47 fire. They returned fire with well-aimed shots—only in Hollywood do you see guys spraying on full auto. In Special Ops, it's all about well-aimed, effective fire and conserving ammunition. They arrived back at the vehicles, after sending a few more attackers to Allah while remaining virtually unscathed under the leadership of Ty Woods.

Once inside the vehicle, the team called back to base “Five minutes out.”

Ty's team sped through the Libyan neighborhood. Their cars were rattled by small arms fire, their tires flattened and windows filled with the spider cracks that come with embedded lead. But the Agency's armored vehicles held up. Driving armored cars is tricky; it requires skill to deal with the added gross weight. Take a turn too sharply and you dig a rim-and-roll because of the weight of the vehicle. These agents were professionals with decades of experience driving under hostile conditions. “One minute out,” they called back to base. The gate closed at approximately 11:50pm, and a small wave of relief must have overcome the team, but they were too seasoned not to know the fight was far from over. Things were relatively calm, at least for the next hour.

Meanwhile, local militia leaders were busy coordinating their next move. They repositioned for an attack on the CIA base just after midnight. The Americans would soon come under a barrage of machine gun, rocket, and mortar fire.

The attackers quickly found out that the CIA base was heavily fortified and prepared for an attack, with fighting positions, heavy weapons, skilled paramilitary professionals, high-intensity floodlights (blinding to any would-be attacker), and highly paid indigenous security personnel. Unlike State's foreign security, the Agency's were well armed. This would end up giving the Americans a tremendous advantage and ultimately ensure their safe evacuation.

The fight started just after midnight. It would be a sleepless night as the GRS and DSS agents, along with their local security, fended off attacks throughout the early morning hours. They would rack up dozens of enemy KIA. The intensity would never get to the point where the CIA thought they were at risk of being overrun; however, that would change as the sun came up on the 12th.

E
ARLY IN THE
morning, the jet carrying Glen Doherty and his team from Tripoli landed in Benghazi. The US team was initially held up at the airport for a few hours. It's unclear whether this was intentional or not, but the Americans eventually forced their way through. Just after 5:00am, the seven-man support team arrived to aid their countrymen at the CIA annex. Minutes after their vehicle drove through the gate, the base came under heavy fire. Glen and his fellow Americans were quick to take up defensive positions and join in the fight. At this point, several of the enemy tried coming over the wall but were dispatched with lethal accuracy. All told, the handful of Americans would kill just under a hundred enemy attackers.

When the fighting lulled, Glen began searching for his good friend Ty. He was told that Ty was on the rooftop, manning the MK46 machine gun with two others, directing the main defending element. Glen climbed onto the rooftop to join his friend without knowing the gravity of that decision.

On the roof of the CIA base, the two long-time SEAL friends briefly embraced like brothers, and both quickly filled each other in. Soon they retook defensive firing positions to engage the enemy along the outer perimeter. Ty yelled out a quick endorsing introduction of Glen—whom he referred to by his call sign, “BUB”—to the other two guys on the roof. During a lull in fire, the three men—Ty, another GRS operative, and a DSS agent—told Glen how glad they were to have more capable bodies in the fight, and how much they appreciated his efforts to get to Benghazi.

They fought together on that rooftop half a world away from their homes for only a few more minutes. Meanwhile, the attackers' skilled mortar team was using a common tactic of “bracketing” to find their mark. They would fire a couple rounds, adjust based on where they landed, and then send two more mortars. The rounds were getting closer with each shot.

WREESHHH . . . BOOM! Ty's position was hit with a French 81mm mortar round, fatally wounding the veteran warrior. Ty's body shielded the other GRS agent—saving the man's life, though still leaving him critically wounded. As Glen attempted to reposition and take cover, a second round dropped onto his position, killing him instantly. A third round hit the DSS agent's position, wounding him and shredding his leg with fragments.

Glen's and Ty's deaths severely impacted their fellow teammates and influenced two GRS agents, long after the fight, to quit as a result of their deaths. They were the type of men people looked up to and loved. They were exemplary in all aspects of their personal and professional lives. With no time for personal reflection, they died with a gun in their hands, defending their fellow Americans.

Without hesitation, and clearly putting themselves at risk, several more agents, including one JSOC guy, ran up to the roof to assess the damage and give aid to the wounded. This quick action unquestionably saved two men's lives. They lowered the bodies down with rope they had cut from gym equipment. The GRS agent was able to make it down the ladder on his own, and the JSOC guy literally strapped the wounded DSS agent to his back before climbing down the ladder under a hail of incoming fire.

At this time, another JSOC operator was monitoring the situation from his handheld ROVER, a device used to display sensor data from a General Atomics MQ–1 Predator overhead.

A ROVER Handheld Device. Courtesy of L3 Communications.

It was an unarmed drone equipped with multiple sensors to detect infrared (IR) and thermal signatures. The drone had been redirected to the scene by the DOD's AFRICOM (Africa Command) at the request of the JSOC operator. It contributed to the overall situational awareness of the ground-based team, and the information was a huge factor in the next decision—which would save all of their lives.

Armed Version of the Predator. Courtesy of General Atomics.

“There's a large element assembling, and we need to get everyone out of here now!” the JSOC man relayed to the Chief of Base and GRS TL. The footage on the ROVER's screen was enough to convince the CIA Chief. They immediately notified everyone to gather up all their personal security items and evacuate.

To the CIA's credit, all told, they successfully rescued six State Department personnel, recovered Smith's body, and got approximately thirty Americans out of Benghazi alive. And they also didn't compromise any classified material in the process. The CIA team left the compound locked, and in the hands of a trusted local.

Within minutes of the decision, the vehicles were loaded and the Americans were on their way to the airport. They encountered small arms fire on the way but arrived unscathed in time to meet the first of two aircraft that would fly them back to Tripoli.

E
ARLIER, WHILE THE
CIA compound was under attack, the embassy in Tripoli had been trying to coordinate with an unknown caller concerning the whereabouts of Ambassador Stevens's body. A call had come in at 2:00am from the borrowed cell phone that was loaned to Stevens by the DSS agent. They were suspicious that it was a guise to lure the Americans into incurring further casualties. The decision was made to send a trusted local, familiar with the ambassador, to the Benghazi Medical Center, where he positively identified Stevens's body. We're unsure about the details, but arrangements were made to transport the ambassador's remains to the airport. We've heard that there was an exchange of fire in the handoff process, but it's unconfirmed. There was likely a money exchange involved, regardless of what happened.

At 7:30am, a chartered jet took the wounded and a small number of American evacuees back to Tripoli in the first wave. A second Libyan aircraft (a C–130) would take the remaining Americans, including Ambassador Stevens's body, which had arrived by ambulance at the airport around 8:30 in the morning. They would all land in Tripoli at 11:30am. The bodies and wounded were sent to Germany on two US Air Force aircraft (a C–130 and a C–17). The planes arrived in Ramstein Air Force Base around 10:30 at night, nearly 24 hours after the initial attack commenced.